Taiwanese businesses are expected to win orders worth over US$100 million after the “Trade with the EU 2013” business matchmaking event on Thursday in Taipei, according to the event organizer.
This year’s trade show brought together 80 buyers from 18 EU member states, an increase from last year when 76 buyers from 17 countries took part, secretary-general of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council Huang Wen-rong (黃文榮) said.
As many as 710 one-on-one meetings were arranged between buyers and 410 Taiwanese suppliers at the one-day show, with the focus on products such as machinery, information and communications devices, auto parts and components, mechanical and electrical devices, medical equipment, plastics, chemicals, hand tools, bicycles and metal materials Huang said.
He predicated that the orders received this year will surpass last year’s value of US$97.47 million.
Head of the European Economic and Trade Office in Taipei Frederic Laplanche said Taiwan is among the top 20 trade partners of the EU and a lot of potential business opportunities remain to be explored between the two sides.
Last year, investment in Taiwan by companies from EU nations totaled US$1.67 billion, accounting for 30.1 percent of all foreign investment, said Laplanche who attended the event. He expressed confidence that Taiwan will be able to remain attractive to European businesses as long as it continues to improve its business environment.
He also urged Taiwanese companies to increase their business in EU countries, saying that Taiwanese investment in the EU is only 10 percent of South Korea’s.
The EU is currently Taiwan’s fourth-largest trade partner after China, Japan and the US. Taiwanese exports to the EU were valued at US$14.37 billion in the first seven months of this year.
Last year, the bilateral trade volume totaled US$48.6 billion, accounting for 8.52 percent of Taiwan’s foreign trade.
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